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CDL revision

CDL study guide — free revision notes

The complete Google Cloud Digital Leader study library — 14 lessons mapped to every domain and topic in the official exam guide. Free to read, no account needed.

Lessons
14
across 6 domains
Reading time
4 hrs
221 minutes in total
Exam
55 Qs
90 min · pass Pass / fail
Price
Free
no account required

Create a free account to track completed lessons, bookmark topics and see your exam readiness. · Pro lessons unlock with a one-time upgrade.

The CDL blueprint, domain by domain

Google Cloud publishes exactly what the CDL tests and how much each part is worth. Here it is — every domain, its weight, the topics inside it, and the lessons that cover them.

Domain 1

Digital Transformation with Google Cloud

18%
of the exam

Why cloud drives digital transformation and its core concepts: the benefits and drivers of transformation, Google Cloud's differentiators, cloud architectures (private, hybrid, multicloud), networking basics, regions and zones, and the IaaS/PaaS/SaaS trade-offs. Official (approximate) weighting ~18%.

2 topics in this domain
  • Explain why and how the cloud is revolutionizing businesses
  • Describe fundamental cloud concepts
2 lessons · 34 min of reading · 76 practice questionsStart this domain
Domain 2

Exploring Data Transformation with Google Cloud

18%
of the exam

The value of data and how Google Cloud manages it: databases vs warehouses vs lakes, data types and the data supply chain, governance, choosing among Cloud Storage, Spanner, Cloud SQL, AlloyDB, Bigtable, BigQuery and Firestore, storage classes, and analytics with Looker, Pub/Sub, Dataflow and Managed Service for Apache Spark. Official (approximate) weighting ~18%.

3 topics in this domain
  • Describe the intrinsic role that data plays in an organization's digital transformation
  • Determine which Google Cloud data management products are applicable to different business use cases
  • Discuss how smart analytics, business intelligence tools, and streaming analytics can add value in different business use cases
3 lessons · 46 min of reading · 75 practice questionsStart this domain
Domain 3

Innovating with Google Cloud Artificial Intelligence

18%
of the exam

AI, ML and agentic AI for business value: core definitions, data quality, responsible and explainable AI, choosing Google Cloud AI solutions, Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, pre-trained APIs, custom models with Agent Studio and AutoML, AI Hypercomputer and BigQuery ML. Official (approximate) weighting ~18%.

2 topics in this domain
  • Describe fundamental AI and ML concepts and how they create business value
  • Explain how Google Cloud's AI offerings can create business value
2 lessons · 34 min of reading · 76 practice questionsStart this domain
Domain 4

Modernize Infrastructure and Applications with Google Cloud

18%
of the exam

Moving to the cloud and modernizing: migration terms (rehost, replatform, refactor, reimagine), compute terms, Compute Engine, GKE, Cloud Run, hybrid and multicloud products, and the business value of APIs and Apigee. Official (approximate) weighting ~18%.

3 topics in this domain
  • Describe how Google Cloud helps organizations transition to the cloud
  • Describe the functionality, business use cases, and business value of Google Cloud's infrastructure offerings
  • Describe the business value of application programming interfaces (APIs)
3 lessons · 46 min of reading · 75 practice questionsStart this domain
Domain 5

Trust and Security with Google Cloud

18%
of the exam

Cloud security concepts and Google's defense-in-depth approach: threats, the CIA triad, zero trust, encryption states, authentication vs authorization, Google Threat Intelligence, Security Command Center, Google Security Operations, AI security (Model Armor, AI Protection), network and identity controls, and how Google earns trust. Official (approximate) weighting ~18%.

2 topics in this domain
  • Describe fundamental cloud security concepts
  • Describe the business value of making Google part of an organization's security team with its defense-in-depth, multilayered approach to cloud security
2 lessons · 34 min of reading · 76 practice questionsStart this domain
Domain 6

Scaling with Google Cloud Operations

10%
of the exam

Cost control and modern operations: CapEx to OpEx and TCO, financial governance, the resource hierarchy, quotas, budgets and billing reports, Google Cloud Observability, resilience, the golden signals, and SRE concepts (SLIs, SLOs, SLAs). Official (approximate) weighting ~10%.

2 topics in this domain
  • Recognize how Google Cloud supports an organization's ability to control their cloud costs
  • Describe the fundamental concepts of modern operations, reliability, and resilience in the cloud
2 lessons · 27 min of reading · 42 practice questionsStart this domain

How to revise for the CDL

Reading every note front to back is the slowest way to pass. The exam is weighted, so your revision should be too — the blueprint above tells you exactly where the marks are.

Read in weight order, not page order

Digital Transformation with Google Cloud carries the most marks on the CDL, so it earns the most of your attention. Work down the blueprint from the heaviest domain to the lightest rather than starting at domain 1 and grinding forward.

First pass for coverage, second pass for recall

Read each lesson once without stopping to memorise — you are building a map, not a memory. On the second pass, read only the "what's tested" and key-takeaway blocks. If a takeaway surprises you, that lesson goes back on the pile.

Turn takeaways into questions

Cover a lesson's key takeaways and try to say them out loud from the heading alone. Recall you can produce under your own steam is the only recall that survives a timed exam; recognition on a re-read is not the same thing.

Stop reading when practice, not the page count, says so

Finishing the notes is not the goal — scoring is. Move to CDL practice questions early, then come back to the exact lessons your wrong answers point at. That loop is worth far more than a third read-through.

Beyond the CDL notes

CDL cheat sheetEvery key takeaway from these notes on one page, grouped by domain. For the week of the exam.CDL flashcardsThe same key facts one at a time, answer hidden until you commit — recall practice rather than re-reading.CDL practice questions420 exam-realistic questions with an explanation on every option. Reading is not the same as knowing.CDL mock exams55 questions in 90 minutes, scored like the real thing. Sit one before you book.Google Cloud Digital Leader (CDL) exam overviewExam facts, who it is for, cost and how it fits alongside the other certifications.

CDL revision notes: your questions

Yes. All 14 CDL lessons are readable in full without an account and without payment. Creating a free account adds progress tracking, bookmarks and a readiness score — it does not unlock extra reading.

Source

Exam structure, domain weights and scoring on this page come from the official CDL exam guide.